A blog site for the anthology, A Tingling Catch: A Century of New Zealand Cricket Poems 1864-2009 edited by Mark Pirie; foreword by Don Neely (HeadworX Publishers, Wellington, New Zealand, 2010). The blog features reviews and commentary on the book as well as New Zealand cricket poetry, reviews of New Zealand cricket books and other related material. The book's cover is by UK cricket painter Jocelyn Galsworthy.

Sunday, March 18, 2012

Last year, I was reading Alan Eason's A to Z of Bradman and found a humorous entry on Bradman’s disappointing visit to Wellington in 1932.

As the story goes, the Australian team was on their way back from a tour of Canada and the United States and stopped by Wellington where an exhibition match at the Basin Reserve was scheduled. Bad weather, “a wash out”, saw their game cancelled, and so the next morning Bradman was up early to go sightseeing in the Wairarapa with his wife. Rooming away from his team meant Bradman didn’t realise that their match had been hastily rescheduled for later that day (12-2pm) before their ship was due to sail.

Unable to contact Bradman or Fleetwood-Smith the Aussie “googly” bowler (no cell phones back then), thousands of fans turned up at the Basin to catch a glimpse of Bradman only to find their hopes cruelly dashed.

Wellington made 43/1 in their limited half hour’s play with Jack Lamason (who later toured England in 1937) getting most of their runs: 26 not out. The rest of the time was for a display of aggressive batting from the Australians (Nutt, Tolhurst, McCabe, Kippax, the stylist, Richardson and Rofe). All-rounder Stan McCabe prior to this match had already broken a woman spectator’s leg on tour with a powerful hit, so expectations must’ve been high for some big hitting.

The Australians certainly entertained the crowd despite Bradman’s non-appearance and they made 155/4 in their 78 minutes with McCabe carrying his bat for 78; Lambert taking 3-72 for Wellington (from The Evening Post report and scorecard, 20 September 1932).

Bradman returned later that day, miffed and most apologetic for missing the match. He later tried to make amends and made plans to bring a team of young Australian players for an exhibition match the following season but that idea seems to have been ruled out due to player restrictions by the Australian Board of Control. They advised Bradman to take medical rest at the close of the season, and so Bradman never did light up New Zealand cricket grounds or please his fans across the Tasman.1

A. Varney of the Wellington Cricket Association had expressed enthusiasm for Bradman’s idea of bringing a team of young players over and A. T. Donnelly of the New Zealand Cricket Council had made further approaches to the Australian Board of Control (The Evening Post 30 December 1932). Due to Bradman’s fatigue of “too much cricket”, however, the idea did not eventuate.2

I decided to look up Bradman’s unfortunate Wellington visit further in the National Library of New Zealand’s Papers Past digital archive. There I uncovered, in Percy Flage’s popular column “Postscripts” (The Evening Post, 17 & 21 September 1932), a barrage of remarks and verses in response to his visit and his perceived no show at the Basin.

On 17 September, Flage publishes a poem before the Bradman game (mentioning popular Wellington player Herb McGirr):

EXHIBITION CRICKET.

Would it please you, oh my brother, if, before he had a smack,

Don was skittled for a "blob" – or would you want your money back?

And if Herb. McGirr clumped Mailey twice or thrice into the stand,

Would you take it hard, or would you shout and howl to beat the band?

Then on 21 September, Flage prints a vivid display of disappointment from local cricket fans after the match:

DISAPPOINTED!

Miniature flood of metaphorical brick-bats for Bradman, who did not appear at the Basin yesterday. However, it is reported that it was no discourtesy on Don’s part; his absence was due to a misunderstanding.

Dear Percy,—Can you tell me a use for the ancient eggs I took down to the wharf for Don Bradman?

MELVILLE.

“Spy Glass”—

Enter cricket ground at noon.

Hero, Mr. Bradman.

Exit ground at 2 p.m.,

Zero d—n that Bad-man.

“Allured’s” comprehensive curse—

May the pangs of mal der mer disturb him right across the Tasman.

May his mother-in-law come to stay with him for three years.

Whence he puts his cricket boots on may his corns hurt so he becomes as slow as a tuatara with the sciatica.

When he misses one of Larwood’s fast ones, may the wind blow his bails off.

When he is waiting to catch a ball in the outfield may his trousers commence to fall down.

May he be as cold all through the summer, as I felt about 2 o’clock to-day.

“Mac” passes on a note from: youthful “Flannelled Fool,” with this explanation:—Yesterday my boss’s son, called at the office and complained bitterly that he had been lured to the Basin under false pretences. Jokingly I suggested that he should write to “the papers” about it. This morning he brought the enclosed note to me with the request that I should see that it went to the right quarters.

And here’s “F.F.’s” wistful plaint— nearly all the boys of our school, that is Wellington College went to the Basin to see Mr. Bradman play, as we were granted time-off. I bought a new autograph book to get Mr. Bradman to sign. We were very disappointed when we found out Mr Bradman was not there, and it was in the paper he would be—I think the Cricket people might have told us so that we would not have been disappointed. Please, excuse my writing, but my autograph book cost 5s, and I am cross that I did not get Don’s name in it.

As can be seen in the responses above, Bradman’s visit seems to have unwittingly occasioned New Zealand cricket verse on the matter. “Rosie Neath” and “Spy Glass” as far as I can tell were regular contributors to the column in searches for their names on Papers Past. “L.D.A” is L. D. Austin.

Niel Wright informs me that Percy Flage was in fact journalist and editor, C. A. Marris, who edited among other things the Best New Zealand Poems series of the 1930s and ’40s. Ruth Gilbert (who had poems included in “Postscripts”) told Wright that Flage was Marris.

Notes

1 Bradman when interviewed for the ABC series, The Don Declares, said his not playing in New Zealand was ‘an extraordinary thing’. He wasn’t picked in 1928, did not play in 1932 (thought this visit isn’t mentioned), and did not tour in 1946 for health reasons. The 1946 visit was an attempt to get cricket started again after World War Two. He would've loved to have played in New Zealand and pleased his fans.

2 This would’ve been near the time of the Bodyline series 1932/33 in Australia so it’s understandable as he suffered ill health for a year or two after this.

Postscript

As a postscript to the Bradman visit, I’ve uncovered a further poem on Bradman also in the “Postscripts” column (The Evening Post, 3 February 1932) in relation to his status prior to the Wellington visit. It’s a celebration of popular Wellington cricketer and all-rounder Herb McGirr:

OUR ’ERB

This rhyme is Isidore McFlage’s way of protesting against the continual adulation bestowed on Don Bradman while that bane of bowlers has yet to meet Herb. McGirr. Precisely. Gangway for Izzy.

This chap Bradman must we all

Toss our derbies up, and bawl

Every time he lands a score

Of three figures, say, or more?

No doubt he is pretty good

When he’s laying on the wood,

But I want to warn you, sir,

Wait until he meets McGirr!

Don has slammed the Springboks well—

Quinn, McMillan, Vincent, Bell;

Pasted Larwood, Voce, and Tate

At a most prodigious rate.

While his critics bowed the head,

And would not be comforted.

Still … I think there’ll be a stir

When he takes on Herb McGirr!

If one man his dash can curb

You can bet your life it’s Herb.

He is game to take all on—

Hobbs and Duleep, Woodfull, Don.

Let them play the rock, or hit,

Mc. just doesn’t care a bit.

“Wizard with the willow”… brrr!

Wait until he meets McGirr!

I’m unable to find out who Isidore McFlage is. He was a regular contributor to “Postscripts”, had an interest in politics, verse, sport and gardening, and lived in “the Glen, Kelburn”. Flage also refers to him as his “cousin McFlage” but that is no more helpful. Marris did live in Ngaio Road, Kelburn, in the Glen so it could be him writing under another pseudonym.

A further cricket poem by McFlage (also in “Postscripts”, The Evening Post, 14 September 1932) pokes fun at the Australian Ashes team, naming 12 players of the period, and includes Bradman:

MORAL EFFECT

Isidore McFlage, in dear dead day beyond recall our sister Camou’s “steady,” spins this “wrong un” of his at those terrifying English cricket critics.

(Sources: The Evening Post [1932] from Papers Past, National Library of New Zealand digital archive; and the A to Z of Bradman by Alan Eason; foreword by Gideon Haigh (Scribe, Melbourne, 2008))

This article was first published in Poetry Notes (Poetry Archive of New Zealand Aotearoa Newsletter), Vol. 2, No. 4, Summer 2012; and republished as a booklet by Cultural and Political Booklets, Wellington, New Zealand, 2012.

Thursday, March 15, 2012

Earlier, I posted a substantial piece on VictoriaCollege’s poet-cricketers in the early 1900s. I also found a cricket-related poem by Philip Grey that could well do as an Epilogue to that article.

Grey, a contributor to the Spike at VictoriaCollege, was included in the post-WWI anthology, The Old Clay Patch, in 1920.

His full name is Philip Oswald Grey, son of Ellen and George Grey. He was born in 1891, presumably in Taranaki, and was educated in New Plymouth at St Joseph’s School and then New Plymouth Boys’ High School before moving to Wellington where he gained a university scholarship to attend VictoriaCollege (1910-12). At Victoria, he studied Law, English, Latin and History.

After Victoria, Grey was on the WWI Reserves Roll (1916-17), received a Military call up in 1917 while living in Nelson, and after became a solicitor in New Plymouth in the firm Grey & Grey with George Grey, his father.

Rowan Gibbs informs me that he was married to Mary Louisa Russell (1906-1994) in 1930. The couple had no children.

The poet/lawyer Philip Grey was also a sportsman and after the war an amateur golfer who appeared in the 1927 National Golf Championship. In 1923, the New Zealand Golf Council gave him a handicap of 10.

Reviewer’s comments on Grey’s poems say that his verses ‘give pleasure’ (The Evening Post, 3 August 1920) and are ‘marked by keen appreciation of Nature’ (The Evening Post, 17 April 1924). Perhaps critics see him as a pastoral poet; both cricket and golf are pastoral games.

Five of his poems written at Victoria College (‘Eugenie’, ‘Victoria College’, ‘Summer Dreams’, ‘Winter’ and ‘L’Envoi’) are included signed Philip Grey in the 1920 edition of The Old Clay Patch and three in the 1949 edition of The Old Clay Patch but only two remain from the 1920 edition. ‘L’Envoi’, ‘Eugenie’ and ‘Summer Dreams’ are the poems by Grey omitted from the 1949 edition.

Seven of the eight original publications of Grey's writings 1911-13 (one piece of prose) in The Spike were under the pseudonym of Piri Kerei. This is a transliteration of Philip Grey in Maori.

I have not found any further book publications by Grey after Victoria; however, he has one more poem in TheSpike. Rowan Gibbs found it: 'Changed Skies', written in New York (1922) and online in TheSpike 1923.

Grey’s ‘Victoria College’ is also in quotation in the editorial to The Spike (1920), next reappears in the 1934 issue of The Spike and is in quotation in the notes to Chapter Six of Rachel Barrowman’s Victoria University of Wellington 1899-1999: A History (VUP, 1999).

About his law career: In 1950 Grey & Grey amalgamated with Hughes Hughes & Clark forming Hughes Grey & Ross, later becoming Hughes Grey & Co.; and that firm was absorbed by N H Moss Greiner Till & Co. After various amalgamations and splits, it became Dennis King Law, one of the oldest firms in Taranaki that can trace its roots back to 1870.

Grey died in 1976. He is in the New Plymouth City Council cemeteries database (cremation). He was 85 years old and noted in the cemetery record as a ‘solicitor’.

I was unable to find an Obituary for him in NZ Biographies at the National Library of New Zealand. Here is Grey’s cricket-related poem:

PHILIP GREY

L’Envoi

When November’s toil is over, and life is all aquiver

With the joy of hope and labour overpast,

We will wander where your heart would, by the lakeside, by the river,

And forget the toil of term-time o’er the cast.

We have known the joy of effort, we have toiled long nights together,

We have quested north and south at Eastertide.

There’s a whisper in your heart now: ’tis the call of bat and leather;

’Tis the lure of racing waters overside.

And although our ways be different, though our paths shall lie asunder

In the dawn of summer days that are to be;

Though you wade where waters murmur, though you dream where rollers thunder –

Follow back along the trails of memory,

Follow back until you find us; we’ll be waiting there to meet you

By the halls and by the playing fields you knew,

Though you wander, don’t forget us; we’ll be waiting there to greet you

Childs, himself a promising cricketer, played as a right-hand batsman and leg break bowler for Otago Under 20s in 1960/61 in the Brabin Tournament and in 1961/62 in the Rothman’s U23 tournament as well as representing Southland against Fiji at Queen’s Park, Invercargill, that same season. (The Cricket Archive in England has a player page for Cyril.)

Childs was living in Dunedin at the time of his death.

I’d like to offer my condolences to Cyril’s friends and family at this time.

Here is Cyril’s ‘Cricket Song III’ from A Tingling Catch in memory of him:

The latest issue of Poetry NZ features emerging writer Maris O’Rourke and a high quality selection of poets, guest edited by Auckland poet Siobhan Harvey. More on the magazine and how to subscribe is at: http://www.poetrynz.net/

I hope I haven’t put the kiss of death on Martin Guptill’s excellent season with the bat. He had a rare failure in the Dunedin Test against South Africa just finished.

I published the following salute to Guptill in The Wellingtonian newspaper following his 78 not out in the first T20I against South Africa in Wellington. The innings included two big sixes, one of which landed on the roof of the stadium.

Guptill has certainly been a fine performer with the bat this season and is an attractive stroke player to watch:

With the First Test between NZ and South Africa in Dunedin rained off, I'd like to mention that a good and generous review of A Tingling Catch appeared in Cordite Poetry Review (20 February 2012) in Australia, an online review site for Australian and other miscellaneous books.

The review was written by the Australian poet Penelope Cottier, one of the Top 20 finalists for the 2011 Cricket Poetry Award.

Cottier’s review is the 12th review notice for the book. See the full Index of reviews.

About Me

Mark Pirie is an internationally published New Zealand poet, anthologist, literary critic, writer and publisher with a special interest in cricket poetry. In 2010 he edited and published 'A Tingling Catch': A Century of New Zealand Cricket Poems 1864-2009. Mark's previous anthology of New Zealand Science Fiction poetry, co-edited with Tim Jones and published by IP, Brisbane, won the Sir Julius Vogel Award for Best Collected Work 2010. His publishing company is HeadworX Publishers: http://headworx.eyesis.co.nz As a publisher and author he has over 100 titles listed in the National Library of New Zealand. His website is www.markpirie.com His other interests are popular music. In 2010 he helped co-organise the Poetry Archive of New Zealand Aotearoa (PANZA). Web site: http://poetryarchivenz.wordpress.com